How to keep employees from stealing?

MaxWax

MaxWax

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I've never had any employees working for me before and I now have 2 office building accounts where I'll send 1 or 2 employees but I won't be there for most of the day. Any tips on how to make sure the employees are honest about how many cars they washed and how much was earned?
 
So these aren't scheduled appts, your guys are going and setting up and then anyone can get a wash correct?


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Yeah, they'll be in a fixed location trying to get as many washes as possible. I'm going to be tracking water and material use and have them on a bonus system if they sell washes and waxes or meet a certain quota etc.
 
Heres the thing.

1. All vehicles need GPS tracking. Onstar is great because they will shutdown and lock the vehicle at any point you need them to.

2. You know how much product it takes from experience. So if they go more than the average. Question them.

3. Put a camera in each car/van. if its van, have camera rolling when a door is open. Or motion.

4. Put them under contract that states if they are caught stealing, you will hold a fine against them. That always seems to work haha.


hope this helps. also do good background checks. Typically they wont steal, but any and I do mean ANY criminal behavor is a warning sign.
 
Go to your local Quick Print shop and have them print a 2 part carbonless business form that is filled out by your employee, keeping the original and giving the customer the 2nd copy.
The employee is required to turn in all receipts with the money at the end of each day.
You design the form and have all the needed information on the form, especially their phone number. You can follow-up several customers to ask how they were treated by your employees, were they satisfied with the job, etc.
If you wanted even tighter control, sequentially number each form and note the numbers
you give the employees and expect all the numbers that were given out in the morning will return in the evening. (Without this numbering, you will have no idea if they did a job and pocketed the money.)
 
4AudiQ said:
Go to your local Quick Print shop and have them print a 2 part carbonless business form that is filled out by your employee, keeping the original and giving the customer the 2nd copy.
The employee is required to turn in all receipts with the money at the end of each day.
You design the form and have all the needed information on the form, especially their phone number. You can follow-up several customers to ask how they were treated by your employees, were they satisfied with the job, etc.
If you wanted even tighter control, sequentially number each form and note the numbers
you give the employees and expect all the numbers that were given out in the morning will return in the evening. (Without this numbering, you will have no idea if they did a job and pocketed the money.)
Click to expand...

All the guy has to do is not fill out the form when he sells a wash.
 
I thought about this a minute and now get what the saying. What if an employee does 5 cars, and just pockets the cash for 2 of them with no paperwork. I guess there is no 100% way, as you could have them use all the paperwork in the world, but they just could bypass that and take the customers cash and pocket it.

This kind of reminds me of the way we make sure anesthesiologists aren't stealing narcotics that weren't used during the surgery. The way that is tracked is every ml of product is documented and signed for by 2 Drs. But that would be a little ridiculous for detailing.

One way that could be effective is make your employees known you may stop by the job site any and multiple times to check how the day is going. Then if you do so randomly, they'll be less likely to do work "on the side" whole under your employment using your products.

Also, I think checking references would help. Make it clear from the start that doing that is not acceptable. If you give them incentives and pay them well, you should be OK.
 
I don't necessarily need gps tracking because the way it will work is I'll go in the morning, drop of and lock up the trailer, the employee will show up open the trailer (The ball and wheels are still locked so it can't be moved) and clock in on an iPad and get to work. I wanted to set up a camera that I could watch from my phone, I know this is possible with wifi and a power outlet but is it possible to do this on battery power?

I was also thinking about using waterless wash since water can become a problem when doing high volume but that makes monitoring materials a little harder as they could theoretically water down the waterless wash and make it look like less was used. Maybe I'm being to paranoid but hiring is completely new to me.
 
Liked your FB page.

My only recommendations would be a stronger longer interview process. I mean like interviewing them and their family (Wife/SO) like take them both to coffee something cheap but that would require more "work" for them at first and see who is willing to do those things cause that will tell you alot about your TEAM.
Second: Read the book Entreleadership by Dave Ramsey he will teach you ALLLLLLLOT about running a business.
 
First off, ditch the bonus system. It sounds like it just reinforces quantity over quality (or even reality).

Tell your guys the more money the company makes, the better their salaries will be. That is, make their pay based on COMPANY PROFIT, not based on number of sales.

That way if they bring in more money (not more customers), they will make more.

The problem with deciding if you can trust your employees is more of a personal issue than a professional one.

You'll have to do some real-world research on how much work the guys can do in an average day and set that as a baseline. If they exceed the baseline, they get more money. If they fall short (regularly) then they get warnings and eventually fired or reduced pay.
 
if your thinking about them stealing before they start there not the wright ones. If it was me just tell them if you dont make money on this they will not be working.Give them 2 weeks and see where your at.For myself I give them a trailer and everything is full to the top.at the end of the week I look how much it cost me to have them work and how much I made .
 
Employees are the most difficult part of running a business. They have a huge range of issues you will have to deal with. I've never had a car care business. My business was in a service industry. I had many employees come and go. I was fair and paid them well. That said, I still had problems with them. About 50% of them attempt to cheat their time sheets. The ones that produced, I kept, the others were let go. About 50% were honest. Produce-kept, no product, let go. Sold the business, mostly retired, no more headaches, no stress. Just playing with cars now. I wish u the best.
 
That's a tough call on how to accurately know. I mean other than a camera, you watching them or having somebody else occasionally watch it doesnt seem like there are too many options. I like the idea about them signing a contract and letting them know they will be prosecuted for stealing if they are caught. Like someone mentioned before about the product levels but I think it would be hard to tell unless it were extreme amounts of product gone. Everyone is different in that arena.


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Beat the crap out of the ones who steal from you. That will show the others you mean business :)
 
Be fair to them, treat them with respect, trust them with little stuff. Put a sign up that says checks or credit cards only, no cash. Another sign that reads free wash if we forget to give you a receipt.


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If you have employees that need to be watched to keep from stealing, you have the wrong employees. You should trust them but obviously they should be keeping logs of their work (car, time, etc). It sets up a negative environment if the presumption is emphasizing you are tracking them to prevent under reporting. Of course, you need to set a good example but demonstrating a good work ethic with clients to set the tone of the business.

You would have to monitor it to see if you suspect something then look at additional actions (getting more info, etc). Every situation is different so it is case by case basis.
 
Hire a guy with one hand. Tell the rest of them he stole 5 bucks from the take last year.
 
Like some others have said, interview thoroughly and do background checks. Maybe institute some sort of profit sharing so they feel invested in the business. Go over results with the employees.Tell them about revenue and expenses. Make them part of the business.

Video monitoring is super cheap these days. Hell you could install a fake camera and that might be enough to keep them honest. Also helpful for preventing theft in general. Break-ins etc are less likely if the property is under video surveillance.

Aside from that, keep very good records and require that every employee take at least one contiguous week off during the year. If you keep meticulous records it will be obvious that something changes when sticky fingers McGee is out for a week and your results change for that week. I mean track everything. track products used, number of cars, equipment, everything. Put inventory numbers on everything. It's a bit of effort but it's good business.
 
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